In place of long used natural materials, such as animal hair and agriculturally grown fibers, our society is increasingly now using multi-strand plastic fiber materials. One example is braided synthetic hair. In fact, this example is one particularly indicative of the growing importance of synthetic fibers as our ability to manufacture them in high quality and having particular aesthetic characteristics improves . Such "hair" is a popular cosmetic accessory, being much more economical and generally easier to care for than natural human or animal hair equivalents. Another example is plastic fiber based synthetic rope. This is very widely used in industry today. Such plastic rope has largely come to replace natural hemp based rope due to its low cost, high strength and superior resistance to deterioration from chemical and other organic agents, like mildew.
While such synthetic materials have become popular for many uses, they are still largely handled as are the older materials which they replace. For example, the ends of natural hair braids and of hemp rope fray. This requires special handling, usually involving tying off the ends in some manner.
However, when multi-strand plastic materials are used instead, particularly if they have thermoplastic characteristics, other options are possible. For example, one can cauterize a multi-strand end, effectively making it into a single end. Today hairdressers working with synthetic hair braids and sailors working with rope will commonly hold a recently cut end tightly and apply heat from the flame of a cigarette lighter to it to perform just such cauterization. Further, they will often attempt to compress the end during such cauterization by removing the flame and squeezing the end with their fingers.
Unfortunately, these methods have a number of disadvantages. If the end is first cut, it has to be tightly held until cauterization is complete. Of course, the material can simply be burned through to make the end, thus combining both cauterization and cutting into one operation. But this, and even conventional cutting, when combined with too close application of a flame is not always wise around plastic materials, which can give off dangerous fumes and even catch fire themselves. Further, even when this does work, it may result in an unattractive end. Thus, whichever method of cutting is used, compression is often also desired, to insure that the fused end stays together or to improve its aesthetic appearance. As noted, the presently preferred tool for this is the fingers, usually after one has licked them to reduce the likelihood of burning ones self, but which all too frequently happens anyway.
There have been attempts to create tools to assist in cutting, cauterizing and compressing multi-strand plastic fiber materials. Hot knife and wire systems are commonly used in high volume production line systems, like industrial bailing machines. But these are generally not hand held, and they overwhelmingly are used to bond the cut end to other portions of the material itself, rather than merely cutting, cauterizing and compressing and open end of it.
For simple end cutting, one instrument currently available in the market which is known to the present inventor is essentially a pair of opposed pre-heated blades. This instrument is heated in an oven and then applied to the synthetic material to compressably cut through it, concurrently cauterizing the two cut ends. However, this tool provides little compression for actually forming the cut ends, and it leaves the ends in less than desirable shapes, e.g., usually flared.
Accordingly, what is needed are improved tools and techniques for cutting, cauterizing and compressing multi-strand plastic fiber materials.